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An authentic family recipe for success

Interview by Emma Tobias

Friday 04 October 2002 00:00 BST
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Adam Kaye, aged 34, is chief executive of Ask Central, the pizza and pasta chain. Along with his 30-year-old brother, Samuel, he turned his dream into reality and created an Italian masterpiece overnight. Looking back, Kaye says he realised that no matter how much planning you do, it never works, and that to succeed in business you just have to go with the flow.

Before Ask Central was formed, Kaye's career was almost non-existent and he says it could be written on the back of a postage stamp. After leaving school, he went to a catering college in Westminster. "My dad had always been in the restaurant business and he worked very hard and so it seemed natural for me to follow in his path," he says. After college he spent five years running different restaurants and different divisions within the City Centre restaurant group in London. In the early Nineties, Kaye's brother, Samuel, was at college and the two made a pact to open a restaurant of their own. As soon as Samuel finished college in 1993, they did exactly that. "Sam left college one week and we opened our restaurant the next week," he says. They chose the name Ask, a combination of their initials.

"We bought a Tootsies restaurant in Belsize Park, London, and immediately converted it into a pizza pasta restaurant. I have always been such a fan of PizzaExpress, and Sam and I saw an opportunity where we could expand on what PizzaExpress did and just make it a bit more restaurant style. PizzaExpress is a great business and we thought we could do that and add a little bit more, not in terms of quality, but more in development. We raised £200,000 from family money and bought the lease and opened the restaurant. Nine years later, things have snowballed and now we have 140 restaurants in the country, 4,500 thousand staff and a predicted annual turnover of £95m," he says.

The brothers floated the company on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 1995 after opening their ninth restaurant. "AIM has really helped us. The restaurant business generates a lot of cash because people are coming into the restaurants and spending a lot of money. But we were getting credit with all our suppliers, so we needed to float the business to get some cash," he says. When the company floated, they raised new money to pay for expansion and more restaurant openings. The company has the option to move on to the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Kaye says it is something Ask is looking into but it is not at the top of the list. "AIM has been amazing for us because it gives you access to institutions and investors. The market has had a slagging off, but I think it is more to do with the companies on the AIM rather than the market itself. Being on AIM we have been able to raise funds more or less whenever we want. When we first floated, we didn't have any history and we were virtually a start up. It has given us a lot of opportunities with no track record," he says.

Ask Central, which reported a pre-tax profit last year of £13.6m, has two brands, Ask and Zizzi, which was created two and a half years ago. The difference between the two brands is that Zizzi has a wood-fired oven. The brothers are planning to open 22 more restaurants this year and hope to expand the business to 350 restaurants in the next couple of years. Kaye also suggests that they might look at creating a new brand or doing something else. "The great thing about Ask is that we have got such a wide audience, I think it is suitable everywhere. It is so mainstream."

The brothers never expected the company to be so successful and to grow as fast as it did. Over the years, Kaye has realised that things never go to plan. "Whenever I planned things, they never seemed to go how I expected them too. So I now know the best thing to do is to just go with the flow. We've been very lucky along the way and have a very good team, and when I look back I think that is the key to our success," he says. Kaye has also learnt that it is important to hire the right people. "I always try to hire people that are better than I am – which isn't that difficult. We are fortunate in that we have an amazing team that is really committed, hard working and very talented. With 140 restaurants, you have got to have a good team because I can't be around all the time, so I heavily rely upon them. They make the company what it is, it's not me." Kaye advises anyone who is considering pursuing their dream to "just go for it. Take opportunities that arise on the way and just do it".

Ask's main competitor is PizzaExpress. Unlike Ask, business has recently not proved as fruitful. Kaye is a massive fan of his rival but says that the challenge is not as direct as might be thought, as the two businesses are very different. "We are more restaurant based."

Kaye does, however, find staffing a challenge. "It's funny in terms of sites, they are not really an issue for us because there are plenty of buildings where we can open up. Finance is also not an issue and we could open up 30 restaurants plus from here with cash flow. The only real thing that is a continuous headache is staffing. It is the same with any business. Finding good people that really care is an ongoing challenge and something we are really aware of. But we are really lucky because we have got a really low staff turnover and finding the right people has always been our main focus."

Both brothers are very much hands-on. Like most siblings they do have their moments but they both love working together and doing what they do. "We have a very special relationship and it is great to be running a business together. We are very close and there is something about your brother that you don't have with anybody else," Kaye says.

When he isn't working, he can be found on the tennis court, at the cinema or dining out at his favourite haunts. "My favourite restaurants in London are Centonova in Notting Hill and Nobu, which is an exceptional restaurant." And when he dines at one of his own restaurants he doesn't have to even look at the menu, it's pepperoni pizza every time. It might be easy for Kaye to choose his pizza, but the bachelor finds it harder to choose a partner. "I'm single and need some children, but it's the wife that's the problem."

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